‘You could be one of the good ones, but the reality is, 99% of our tenants… just… aren’t”
I had offered the use of the bond, to insulate the house, and Michelle was explaining why that would be too much risk to the owner.
‘Anything could happen you see?’ She explained kindly. ‘You could stop paying rent, or damage the property. The owner would have to cover that themselves. The owner doesn’t have to provide insulation, and insulation only effects the tenant, not the owner, so it would be too much risk to allow the bond to be used.
“Oh” I replied, suddenly understanding. “so, because insulation only effects the tenant, not the owner, it’s a risk for the owner to use the bond?”
‘Exactly’ she replied ‘the owner doesn’t get anything out of that’
‘How about keeping a good tenant?’ I offered.
“Oooh and look, it might be, that you are one of the good ones..” she cooed emphatically , “but the reality is, 99% of our tenants… just… aren’t”
Who was I to argue? After all, the last tenants had literally trashed the place. I know, as we had just spent a month cleaning thick greasy dust off every surface, removing building debris and rubbish from the gardens, steam cleaning the carpets and repainting the walls and ceilings of our rental, getting it ready for us to move in to. So I’ll be honest, I didn’t think it was going to be too hard to prove we were good tenants worth keeping. Surely worth insulating.. I made a video of the work we’d done, and the work we were planning to do. But time after time, staff member after staff member, refused to acknowledge the work we’d put in, or that the footage even existed.
That’s odd. I thought.
It wasn’t the only thing that was odd.
It quickly became apparent that the property managers job was to protect the owner – from me.
Wait.. Am I the enemy in this scenario? I wondered. If so, why? I had kinda assumed we’d be working together, towards a common goal. Surely getting the best out of the owners investment was a win win for everyone? Right?…. Right?
You see, this was no ordinary tenancy, I had applied specifically to this tenancy with the offer to ‘do up’ the house at my own cost. It was a personal passion project. Something I’d always wanted to do. And something about this house had my creative juices flowing. In return I wanted long term sustainabile housing… we tried to get something in writing, but gosh darn it, we just couldn’t seem to get the wording right, but that’s no big deal I thought, we all clearly wanted the same thing, there’s time for that later. I needed to get a better idea of the investment I’d be making anyway.
So I signed up under the guidance of the very charasmatic James, and as soon as that was done I was never allowed to speak with him again- EVER.
Infact everything changed
Communication with the owner, was no longer allowed.
My offers to help to get the fence fixed, not allowed
Use of the bond to insulate the house, not allowed
Clarification on whether or not the owner did infact want the kind of tenancy I was offering- not allowed.
Acknowledging the work we’d put into the house – not allowed
After months of trying to find a member of the realestate to give me a straight answer, I ended up on the door step of the owners house to find out if they wanted me or not - in person.
-Aaaaaand, well, look. That’s a story on it’s own, and I am… really looking forward to telling it – spoiler free- so, ya’ll just gonna have to wait -
It’s a good storey. A story of discovery, as it just so happens that I have undertaken an…. incredibly intensive and enlightening 6 month journey. We are talking about a journey that can only be described as extreme in every sense of the word - There’s; inward and outward epiphanies, physical feats un-precedented, dareing stunts, twists, turns, dizzying highs and heart breaking lows. It has been the kind of journey that changes a person. The kind of journey that restarts a life.
And I owe all this to the plight of property managers.
So, if you are a property manager, and you can hear me, I’d like to thank you, because I think I finally figured out why I wasn’t able find anyone to advocate me as ‘good tenant worth keeping’. And why good tenants are just so gosh darn hard to find.
.. to be continued